Essay

Ipce
is a forum for people who are engaged in scholarly discussion about the
understanding and emancipation of mutual relationships between children or
adolescents and adults.

In
this context, these relationships are intended to be viewed from an unbiased,
non-judgmental perspective and in relation to the human rights of both the young
and adult partners.

Ipce
meets once every one or two years in a different country, publishes a newsletter
and a web site, co-ordinates the (electronic) exchange of texts and keeps an
archive of specific written publications.

Here
you are: the 15th electronically published Ipce Newsletter.
Note that the real newsletter is on line at
< http://www.ipce.org/
> in the section “What is new?”. This is the paper version for those who cannot reach the Internet.

Those who wants to understand and
emancipate mutual relationships between children and adolescents and adults (see
here above), need an insight into how these relationships are viewed in modern
society: not always from an unbiased non-judgmental view, not always in relation
to the human rights of both the young and adult partners (see again here above).

Yet,
there are authors who want to contribute to a rational discussion, or who want
to explain how these matters are developed and interpreted. Those wanting some insights should read
these authors’ publications. This Newsletter gives more or less an overview of
some of them.

The
December 2002 issue of Archives of Sexual Behavioris an honest attempt to have a rational discussion. Richard Green' paper
proposes that we no longer regard pedophilia as a mental distortion and that it
should be removed from the DSM list of such distortions. Gunter Schmidt's essay
points out many pedophiles act responsibly and asks us to to respect them. Twenty one peer
comments follow, after which Green and Schmidt reply. The first article of the
Newsletter gives a report – and a short comment.

Rod
Downey published “The Moralist”, in effect a love affair about such a
relationship,
and the problems it encounters.

Judith
Levine has written "Harmful to Minors", a book that is highly critical
of the (U.S.) policy to ‘protect
children from sex’, a policy which in itself is perilous for those ‘children’,
especially the teenagers. We present a review and a lecture about this book.

We
have written earlier about Moral Panic, Philip Jenkins’ book. Jenkins
gives us the history of the former century in which the moral panic
gradually grew to what it is nowadays, an irrational fear of the wrong
phenomena. We present a review by Bruce Rind, written in the same issue of Archives
of Sexual Behavior.

Two authors follow with an essay, one
about the banning of gay related books in Australia, the other about the banning
of nice and beauty clothes for modern boys and men out of fear of to be seen
as a beauty, a gay.

As
is customary, a list of documents closes this Newsletter; about a petition in Germany
(not resulting in a law), a (won) court case in Australia, and more.